Thai-German Climate Programme – Policy

BACKGROUND

Thailand is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In response, the country has articulated national targets to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and enhance its climate resilience. Known as the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), a 2030 mitigation target of 20-25% against business as usual has been earmarked for the energy, transport, waste and industry sectors. In the adaptation field, water management, agriculture, health, natural resources management, tourism and human settlements are defined as priority areas.

At the national level, NDC implementation needs further planning, estimation of implementation costs and an enhanced measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system to be integrated into key sectors. At the sub-national level, NDC targets have to be broken down and integrated into the development planning of provinces and municipalities. Such integration of climate change into sectoral and subnational planning needs to be strategically driven, notably through regulatory, economic and financial instruments.

Thailand sees combating climate change as an integral part of the country’s efforts to achieve sustainable development. To achieve the NDC targets, strong individual and institutional capacities as well as systematic cooperation, both horizontally among the relevant ministries and their central agencies and vertically between national and local authorities are key. Lastly, the involvement of other stakeholders from the political and non-political landscape (academia, think tanks, NGOs, etc.) and the international community also helps catalyze transformational processes to a low-carbon and climate-resilient future.

OBJECTIVE

The Thai-German Climate Programme – Policy (TGCP-Policy) supports the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) to engage and promote the mainstreaming of climate change policy to other Thai ministries and relevant stakeholders on the national and local levels to collectively set and reach Thailand’s climate targets.

The policy component is part of the Thai-German Climate Programme (TGCP), which is financed by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). Working across 5 sectors – climate policy, agriculture, energy, waste and water, TGCP supports Thailand’s transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future.

APPROACH

Our team of national and international experts works closely with ONEP in the areas of national policy development, subnational implementation, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) and monitoring and evaluation (M&E), climate finance, and international cooperation.

In addition, the Policy component ensures alignment between the different sectors, thus providing coherent and systematic cross-sectoral support on the topic of the Thai NDC operationalisation. Where relevant, synergies between the sectors are utilised and coherence is guaranteed through joint activities between the sectors.

MAIN PARTNER

Office of the Natural Resource and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE)

MAIN ACTIVITIES

• Support for action plan development to achieve NDC targets
• Support for the monitoring and evaluation of Climate Change Master Plan 2015 – 2050
• Support for the development of national climate change law
• Support for enhanced access to climate finance including the linkage of domestic and international sources of funding e.g. the Green Climate Fund
• Support for capacity-building of regional and provincial government in integrating climate change into provincial development and planning
• Support for the dissemination of negotiated agreements and decisions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change within the Thai delegation and to the public
• Support for the establishment of quality check/ quality assurance for the Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification for the national greenhouse gas inventory

PROJECT DURATION

2018 – 2021